In this July file photo, a number of anti-fracking signs line the roadside in West Lake Ainslie.

Inverness County council is considering a bylaw that would ban the practice, also known as fracking. The bylaw is expected to receive final reading in March.

But Service Nova Scotia Minister John MacDonell said Tuesday there’s a question whether the bylaw would mean anything.

MacDonell’s department is responsible for administering the Municipal Government Act, which he said gives the council no authority to make law in areas of provincial jurisdiction.

“Mineral rights fall under provincial government jurisdiction and a municipal bylaw around hydraulic fracturing would not supersede provincial authority,” he said.

He called the municipality’s move a “moot point” because the province isn’t issuing permits and is conducting a technical and policy review of the practice. A decision on whether the province would change its fracking policy as a result of the review is expected in 2014.

Inverness Warden Duart MacAulay wouldn’t address MacDonell’s comments directly, but he said the county’s legal staff worked to craft a bylaw using human rights provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

He said the county council acted because of uncertainty around whether the area’s water would be protected if fracking is allowed.

“If you put your drinking water and your watersheds around a certain area in jeopardy then you are taking some of those (human) rights away,” said MacAulay.

MacDonell wouldn’t speculate on what the province’s response to municipal efforts to stop fracking would be if its policy were to change after the review and the government issued permits to allow the practice.

“And since it’s not clear whether Nova Scotia will be allowing any hydraulic fracturing it’s purely hypothetical as to whether or not it would wind up in court,” he added.

Toronto-based Petroworth Resources has plans to drill a 1,200-metre vertical exploratory well on the western side of Lake Ainslie in the county, but the company has repeatedly said its permit does not include fracking.

Still, the proposal has sparked many protests including several pickets at the Canso Causeway.

Inverness county has been holding a series of consultations to gauge local public opinion on fracking.

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George

January 23, 2013 - 08:40

Amazing how people with jobs, the retired and American Immigrants oppose every job creation measure. They oppose the golf course, oil and gas exploration, mineral exploration, Mining etc etc. Then they complain that the schools are closing, the hospital is reducing services and the young people are leaving. I need a job I want to stay here. If there are alternatives than those opposing everything should advocate for an alternative. If not find another cause Inversness and Cape Breton are not your private retirement community.